For people swimming in an ocean or lake, it is of course a usual part of that experience to lie down on the beach during part of the time and enter the water for other parts of such time. A vast majority of people swimming on a beach use a large beach towel spread out on the sand and then they lie down on such towel. One of the problems associated with using a towel as a beach mat is that it becomes wet and sand clings to it in this condition. Consequently, when wet and sandy, it is not useful for drying off. Another problem associated with using a towel for this purpose is that a separate container or containers must be carried to the beach for holding accessories, such as suntan lotion, radios, footwear or the like. Another problem with the use of a towel or a similar mat is that when people walk by, sand gets on top of the towel or mat in the place where the user intends to lie down, therefor making it very difficult to keep sand off of the user.
When it is time to leave the beach, and the user desires to put on shoes or other footwear, it is extremely difficult to rinse the sand off of one's feet, stand on a towel that has sand on it, and then put on such footwear without retaining sand on one's feet.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,898,609 to Storie, 4,195,378 to Parker, 4,375,111 to Hall and 4,546,507 to Weinstein all show various types of beach mats or the like which can be folded up and taken from place-to-place. While these patented devices tend to be a considerable improvement over the common beach towel, they are not in common usage. It is surmized that one reason that such patented devices are not in common usage is that they do not solve the aforesaid problems of preventing sand from entering the place where the user is to lie down, do not provide adequate places for storage of equipment, and they do not conveniently permit a person to rinse one's feet off in an efficient manner.